November 2^> 1870.] THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 421 
INFUSIONS. 
EY A. ALLCHIN. 
The infusions used in pharmacy have perhaps 
given rise to more discussion than any other class of 
preparations contained in the British Pharmacopoeia. 
13ut though much lias been said and written on the 
subject, nothing very satisfactory lias as yet resulted, 
and the position of this matter, as it now stands, is 
hardly creditable to pharmacists as a professional 
body. 
The questions respecting the use of concentrated 
preparations are still undecided, and, what is worse, 
there is no uniformity of practice. We have on 
the one hand pharmacists of acknowledged ability 
refusing to recognize these preparations, which we 
know to be in daily use in many establishments; 
while on the other hand, they are recommended as 
well as used by men of great experience, whose 
opinion is entitled to respect, inasmuch as they con¬ 
scientiously believe that in using concentrated prepa¬ 
rations, they are faithfully fulfilling the intentions of 
the prescriber as well as their duty towards patients. 
Anything that would tend to do away with these 
differences, both in practice and opinion, that have 
so long perplexed pharmacists, should be gladly wel¬ 
comed by them, and for this reason alone the paper 
recently brought before the Pharmaceutical Society 
by Mr. Bames merits the careful consideration of all 
concerned with dispensing. The author may fairly 
be considered to merit the thanks of the trade, not 
only for having directed attention to the subject, but 
also for having taken a step hi the right direction, 
and, in a great measure, disposed of the difficulties by 
which it has been surrounded. 
Before proceeding to speak more particularly of 
this paper, it appears desirable to give a brief resume 
of what had previously been published on the subject 
of infusions. 
In the first volume of the Pharmaceutical Journal 
the preparation of infusions and decoctions was 
brought forward by Mr. Bell, and he drew attention 
to the fact that a paper had been 'written on the sub¬ 
ject by Mr. Alsop, of Chelsea, in the year 1836, but 
owing to the want at that period of any channel for 
the publication of such papers in this country, it had 
been sent to Philadelphia and published in the Ame¬ 
rican Journal of Pharmacy. An abstract of this pa¬ 
per was published in the Pharmaceutical Journal,* 
and the hope w r as expressed that such communica¬ 
tions might in future be furnished to the Society in¬ 
stead of travelling from London to England by way 
of Philadelphia. Among the points discussed in this 
paper, the best form of pot or jar for infusions was 
first referred to, and the one recommended was that 
in which the ingredients are allowed to rest on a per¬ 
forated plate, placed nearly at the top of the vessel, 
rather more boiling water being added than would 
be sufficient to cover the ingredients, so as to allow 
for absorption. This plan -was adopted, in order that, 
during the maceration, the liquid in contact with the 
infused material might become charged with soluble 
matter, and then sink through the perforations while 
the imsaturated portion of water took its place, the 
action continuing until the whole of the soluble 
matter became extracted. 
The most convenient mode of preserving infusions 
was then considered; the one recommended—the 
most valuable that has ever been devised—was at 
* New Series, Yol. II. p. 89. 
Third Series, No. 22. 
once adopted. It is still used b}^ many of the most 
enlightened of our brethren, and has been at all times 
strongly recommended by the Professor of Chemistry 
and Pharmacy to our Society as well as many other 
distinguished men. 
The operation is briefly as follows:—When the 
maceration has continued the prescribed time, the 
infusion should be strained and transferred to stop¬ 
pered bottles of convenient size, the bottles being 
filled to the top of the necks, and if the liquid be 
sufficiently hot, the stopper is to be inserted and 
made to displace its own bulk of liquid. In cases 
where the infusion becomes cold before the expira¬ 
tion of the time which it is directed to stand, it is 
necessary to place the filled bottles in a water-batli 
and again heat them before the stoppers are in¬ 
serted. Ordinary bottles with corks can, with a 
little judicious management, be made to answer the 
purpose either by perforating the cork and closing 
the aperture as the liquid cools with sealing-wax, or 
by using the cork entire. In the latter case, the 
cork having been previously fitted to the neck, has 
only to be placed on the top of the filled bottle, and 
gradually pressed down on the receding fluid as it 
cools. 
When the discussion of this subject was first com¬ 
menced, in August, 1841, the names of two gentlemen 
•were mentioned who were at that time making con¬ 
centrated preparations said to possess the requisite 
properties of the drugs in a convenient form, but the 
plan adopted for making them not being generally 
known, their use was limited and it was considered dif¬ 
ficult to form any decided opinion as to the real value 
of these preparations. In 1845, Mr. Thomas Greenish 
communicated a paper on infusions,* confining his ob¬ 
servations principally to the temperature at which 
infusion of calumba ought to be prepared. He ad¬ 
mitted that when made with cold water, it possessed 
the requisite strength and aroma, and had also the 
advantage of being bright, but he showed that owing 
to the presence of albumen, it was more liable to de¬ 
composition than an infusion made at a temperature 
of 212°. On this occasion Dr. Redwood referred to the 
plan of Mr. Alsop for the preservation of infusions, 
and stated that lie had found infusions preserved in 
that way were perfectly good at the end of twelve 
months when put into six- or eight-ounce bottles 
and the mouths closed with tinfoil while quite hot. 
In 1847, the sixth edition of the Prussian Pharma¬ 
copoeia appeared, and in order to guard against the 
too rapid cooling of infusions when made hi small 
quantities, the vessels in which they were made were 
ordered to be exposed to the influence of steam for 
five minutes. 
In 1853, at a meeting of the Edinburgh Chemists' 
Association, on March 16tli, Mr. James Gardner 
read a paper on the watery infusions of the Pharma¬ 
copoeia, and on concentrated infusions,! in which he 
stated that his attention had for many years been 
directed to concentrated infusions, and gave a de¬ 
tailed account of a method for their preparation. 
According to this, we -were directed to take of the 
materials ordered by the College as much as would 
make any number of pints or gallons of an ordinary 
infusion, then to exhaust them with hot or cold water, 
and having strained carefully, to evaporate the liquid 
to a ninth part of the measure ordered by the Col¬ 
lege ; lastly, to add an eighth part of rectified spirit, 
* Pliann. Journ. 1st ser. v. 307. 
f Ibid. xii. 485. 
